Civil Rights Timeline

By lucasribaudo

  • 3/5 Compromise

    Compromise made at the Constitutional Convention in which slaves counted as 3/5 of a person towards both population and taxes

  • Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is Signed

    Declaration of Sentiments, document, outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens, that emerged from the Seneca Falls Convention in New York.

  • Scott v. Sandford

    Court case in which the supreme court ruled that a negro whose ancestors were important to the US as slaves could not become a citizen

  • 13th Amendment

    Abolished Slavery in the United States

  • 14th Amendment

    Grants citizenship to all people born in The United States

  • 15th Amendment

    Grants voting rights to African Americans

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Court case in which Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality

  • Founding of the NAACP

    National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Civil rights movement

  • 19th Amendment

    Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote based on the account of sex

  • Smith v. Allwright

    Court Case ruling it unconstitutional for the state of Texas to differ its authority over elections to the Democratic Party

  • Truman orders the desegregation of the Armed Forces

    Abolished discrimination in the military based on race, color, religion, or national origin

  • Hernandez v. Texas

    In a unanimous opinion delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment protects those beyond the two classes of white or Negro, and extends to other racial groups in communities depending upon whether it can be factually established that such a group exists within a community.

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Court Case in which the Supreme Court ruled Plessy v. Ferguson unconstitutional, thus ending segregation in public places.

  • Little Rock Nine

    Group of nine black students escorted into school by the military after being denied entry by school guards

  • Cesar Chavez Publicizes the Plight of Migrant Workers

    Chavez and a group of strikers set out on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to draw attention to plight of farm workers, and during this strike the union won its first contract.

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolished poll tax (way of discriminating against the poor)

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Act prohibiting racial discrimination in voting

  • Jones v. Mayer

    Court case in which the Supreme Court held that congress could regulate the sale of private property to prevent racial discrimination

  • Founding of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

    The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States.

  • Reed v. Reed

    Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71, was an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes.

  • ERA Introduced Into Congress

    First proposed by the National Woman's political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. More than four decades later, the revival of feminism in the late 1960s spurred its introduction into Congress.

  • ERA Passed by Congress

    First proposed by the National Woman's political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. More than four decades later, the revival of feminism in the late 1960s spurred its introduction into Congress.

  • Title IX

    Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a federal law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

  • Multi-Member Electoral Districts in Texas Outlawed

    In 1973, a case from Texas went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that MMDs could not be used to disenfranchise racial groups.

  • Craig v. Boren

    The Oklahoma statute invidiously discriminates against men between the ages of 18 and 20 in violation of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, and was declared unconstitutional.

  • Plyer v. Doe

    The Court reasoned that illegal aliens and their children, though not citizens of the United States or Texas, are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and, therefore, are afforded Fourteenth Amendment protections.

  • Civil Rights and Women's Equity in Employment Act

    Revised Statutes of the United States to declare that all persons within U.S. jurisdiction shall have the same right to take certain actions, including making and enforcing contracts, as is enjoyed by male citizens.